Millions of transactions occur daily through the use of payment cards, such as credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, etc. Corresponding records of the transactions are recorded in databases for settlement and financial record keeping (e.g., to meet the requirements of government regulations). Such data can be analyzed for trends, statistics, and other analyses. Sometimes, such data are mined for specific advertising goals, such as to provide targeted offers to account holders, as described in PCT Pub. No. WO 2008/067543 A2, published on Jun. 5, 2008 and entitled “Techniques for Targeted Offers,” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
In some cases, coupons (e.g., physical coupons distributed in published magazines with accompanying advertisements) may be used in some of these transactions. These coupons are typically targeted to individual consumers and offer a one-time discount for a single purchase of a good or service. However, consumers often view such coupons as being mundane or dull, and generating significant consumer interest in the coupons is frequently challenging to product marketers.
In other cases, prior to entering a new transaction with another party, whether known from prior activities together or unknown due to lack of any prior activity with that party, a person typically desires to perform some due diligence to learn about the background of the other party. This background may include, for example, comments about the reputation of the other party as learned from friends or research on the Internet. However, identifying and investigating the reputation of potential transactional parties is often time-consuming and may only provide information having poor accuracy.